Stepping Out of the Fire: Decompressing From Embodied Awakening

Many moons ago, I wrote a blog post called, "The Fire: Entering the Crucible of Awakening." I just updated it a little for the details about me, but it still holds true. It's not exactly how I would have written it now as that post went up before I really dedicated myself to the blog. My voice and orientation changed when I made that dedication (which was August 15, 2010) because I no longer was just trying to figure out my own experience. Instead, I began to offer back what I'd learned, which changed how I was writing.

But as I mentioned that there is a stepping into the crucible of awakening, there is inevitably going to be a stepping out. I often think of awakening in these very broad stages:

The Preparation: A person begins to find spiritual resources and practices. The begins to build the crucible that will hold the fire.

The Awakening: The light switch goes on. The fire bursts into full flame

The Embodiment Process: A person brings that awareness/that fire into every aspect of oneself--heart, body, mind, and soul. This may take days, months, or years.

Life after Embodied Awakening: Once you've left the fire, you often live your life in a very different way than before.

This post is aimed at the end of that embodiment process or spiritual awakening process. Because while all kinds of situations and spiritual practices were necessary to turn up the heat enough to burn away the old ways of being, the old pain, and the heavy density, this can't go on for ever. Sure there will be little hotspots in life, but it'll be totally different. So for this post, I am writing about the shift out of the great shift.

Dialing Down the Temperature
A lot of us found our spiritual path very intuitively. Our souls just led us by the nose even when we didn't know that we were being led by the nose. We setup a whole bunch of different situations to bring enough intensity into our lives to help us realize the truth. With that intense awakening, we suddenly saw how many lies we were living in. So we started making changes...and making more changes...and making MORE changes. We went deep into our personal work. We found teachers, prophets, ministers, and self-help gurus. We practiced meditation, journaling, tantric techniques, chanting, and more. We hit every angle of ourselves to break away all the rigidity, anger, self-hate, fear, and more that was limiting us.

And we all learned a Hell of a lot while it also felt like we were going through Hell and Heaven at different times.

But now, it's time to step out of that. Now we learn to simply allow the fullness of who we are in this life. Because there is always a way to "improve." If we created a new ego to help us move through this great shift and embrace it , that inner orientation and perspective must now be let go. In life, you may find that you are always creating new types of egos, but that's okay. We all learn to let them go after they've served a purpose. You won't have the same commitment like you had to the first ego, which would say, "This is just the way I am." No. That is the way you chose to be even if it was chosen unconsciously. That's part of realizing all the gifts that are now open and available to you; you can choose to be anyway that you want to be.

And it's not like we didn't know that it was all about just being anyway. But the world of duality asks us to live, work, and play in this space, and changes have to be enacted and done through actions (i.e. embodied--brought into the physical). So, this is where we let go of some elements of our spiritual practices. We don't get rid of it all. But consider that if you've been covered in mud your whole life, the first level of cleaning has to be intense to get it out of your hair, your ears, and everywhere else. Once you no longer live in the mud like that, a light shower in the morning is all you'll need. With that idea, it's time to put some practices to rest.Your Intuition Guides You Along
As always, your intuition is your guide in what tools to put down. Some meditation techniques will simply be too rigorous. Others will work just fine for the occasional fine-tuning you'll prefer to maintain the energy level that feels true to you. Everyone's vibration settles at a different point--it's whatever point that feels most comfortable for you.

And more relationships will now exit your life. Many relationships came primarily to be guides, mirrors, and helpers to building the crucible and intensifying the fires around you. As you step out of that fire, those relationships change. Many will end. Some will evolve into whatever the next evolution of your relationship should be. Your intuition will help you along here. While you won't always be completely clear in your intuitions all the time, it most likely is way clearer than before this process. So some tears may be shed as different people now leave, but you'll feel this passage as something that is true to you. You'll know that their sacred purpose in your life has completed, and that's okay.

Letting Go of Any Need for Perfection
The whole idea of perfecting yourself may still have somehow sneakily snaked its way through the fires. If so, that is one last thing to toss back into the flame. There's no need to burn yourself out--literally and figuratively. As I said, there are always ways to improve yourself or shift. You will shift your whole life because all of life is change, but this dramatic shift is done. You don't need to do it any longer, and you will also realize that transcendence still feels very human.

After the fires have passed, it can be amazing how "normal" it feels to just be you again. It's one of those things that I've mentioned in other blogs where you no longer have different levels inside of you. You've integrated. So if you don't have one level that is low, how can you tell that another part of you is in an elevated state of consciousness? This also goes back to that post I had about the loss of reference points. So when this whole process has completed, you may not exactly feel enlightened, but you will likely figure out where you are when you're around other people. Other people will provide a reference point. You may be like, "Oh yeah. I remember." It won't be a big deal because other people are where other people are. Being at 10,000 feet on the mountain or 3,000 feet on the mountain are all the same because life isn't a race to the top. Some people are happy at 3,000 feet, and the wonderful thing about life is that we can all choose to be wherever it is that we want to be. That's the great gift.

Relaxing Back into Everyday Life
One of the ways that I've experienced stepping out of the fire is in relaxation. It just seems like different parts of my body, mind, and heart are relaxing more and more. It's a wonderful feeling. Sometimes I use the metaphor of having been in a pressure cooker. Coming out of that just makes you feel wonderfully expansive when you are no longer feeling hammered on from all angles. This will be a different process for everyone because everyone needs their own process out of the fire. Some people may have a very quick exit from the embodiment process. Others may need months or years to come down. I can't really say if that has anything to do with how long your awakening process may have gone on before because awakening doesn't work within our human mental framework of logic and rules. It includes them and everything else. Awakening excludes nothing, and I'm sure some of you felt that truth intensely at times as the fire torched the whole of you.

When I'm writing about this, I'm talking about an internal move that happens, which steps you out of the fire. Internally, a part of us starts to turn down the heat. As we notice this internal shift, we start to step out of the external practices. That's how we acknowledge the coming completion. You can try and avoid the internal work or try to get away from the fire prematurely, but ultimately, you are the generator of the fire. You've brought others in to help, but even in running from them and those situations, you can't get away from yourself. So I encourage you if you're still in the midst of it, let it burn. Trust yourself. Get the support you need. Open yourself to your transformation. It will only take you where you truly want to go--back to you, the real you.

Bringing Ease Back Into Your Life
I always encourage people to find ease within the intensity of the shift. I encourage doing so also as it ends. Think of this like a cool down period after a strenuous workout. Give yourself time to breathe and stretch before the next thing comes into your life (because rest assured, there will be some new thing coming soon as part of the next phase of your life). You don't need to go anywhere. You don't need any kind of relationship. Just be with who you are. Enjoy the expansiveness of yourself. Enjoy the lightness of yourself. Enjoy loving the whole of yourself. Nothing needs to be fixed or changed, and in truth, I would encourage you to simply explore yourself again as if for the first time. Perhaps you feel like you've already done this throughout your shift, but I encourage you to look again. Look at what has grown up inside your internal garden. You may be surprised at the abundance that you've made space for because of the spiritual rite of passage through which you've walked.

Applying Your Life's Purpose
Then, at some point, you may feel called to do something. Maybe only for a little while. Maybe for the rest of your life. Everyone's life purpose is different. For some of you, it may be as simple as exploring life. Others of you have very clear, defined purposes such as helping people awaken through healing or teaching. All purposes are beautiful and equal, and of course, the greatest purpose is simply to be. In that space of profound love and connection, all is already healed and perfect. It's a wonderful space to hold. It's a wonderful space that we've always held. But you've unlocked it. Congratulations--not that I need to congratulate you. It becomes like congratulating someone for breathing air; it is simply what is. It isn't an accomplishment.

Yet still, the shift does require a lot of love and attention on this plane of existence because we are overcoming so much of our own unconsciousness. And this requires comment and praise. So there it is. Welcome brothers and sisters to the next phase of your life. You have been reborn through the awakening fires. May your heart and soul lead you wherever it feels most true to you to go.